The state employee who accidentally broadcast a false missile alert across Hawaii won’t cooperate with federal investigators, a Federal Communications Commission official revealed Thursday.

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Lisa Fowlkes of the FCC told lawmakers that the Hawaii employee at the center of the missile alert controversy has refused to cooperate with the FCC investigation.

On Jan. 13, an employee of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) pushed the wrong button during a routine drill and triggered a statewide missile alert, causing panic and confusion across the state.

Fowlkes, who is chief of the FCC’s public safety and homeland security bureau, said that while the FCC is “pleased with the level of cooperation” from HI-EMA’s leadership, they are disappointed with the employee who made the massive mistake.

“We are disappointed ... that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert, is refusing to cooperate with our investigation,” Fowlkes said. “We hope that person will reconsider.”

During the hearing, Fowlkes reiterated Hawaii Gov. David Ige’s explanation that the false missile alert was triggered by “simple human error,” but added that the state was also at fault for failing to have safeguards in place to prevent such a mistake.

“I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords, so certainly that’s one of the changes that I’ve made,” Ige admitted on Tuesday. “I’ve been putting that on my phone so that we can access the social media directly.”

Fowlkes on Thursday called Hawaii’s missile alert mistake “absolutely unacceptable” and said the extended time it took to send a follow-up alert “compounded the problem.”

“Looking beyond the immediate consequences of the mistake, which are serious in and of themselves, this cry of wolf damaged the credibility of emergency alert messaging, which can be dangerous when a real emergency occurs,” said Fowlkes.

Both the FCC and Hawaii are conducting separate investigations into the mistake, while HI-EMA has temporarily stopped all testing of its emergency alert system.

Ige assigned National Guard Brig. Gen. Kenneth Hara to conduct a full review of the accident. Hara is tasked with providing the state with a plan to improve its emergency preparedness and nuclear missile response.

It is unclear if the state employee will face consequences for refusing to cooperate with the FCC.